Jinx Falkenburg, 84, Actress, Radio And Tv Talk Show Host

Jinx Falkenburg, a leading fashion model and actress who, with her husband, Tex McCrary, pioneered the talk show format on radio and television, has died. She was 84.

Ms. Falkenburg died Wednesday at a hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., less than a month after McCrary's death.

Ms. Falkenburg and McCrary pioneered talk radio programming with the morning show Hi Jinx in 1946. They soon branched out to television with the program At Home, alternating on TV and radio through the mid-1950s. Their shows combined news, celebrity interviews and household tips.

The daughter of a mining engineer, Ms. Falkenburg was born Eugenia Lincoln Falkenburg in Barcelona, Spain. Her mother gave her the nickname Jinx, saying she thought it would bring the girl good fortune.

As a child, Ms. Falkenburg lived in Chile, New York City and Brazil. An athlete throughout her life, she won the junior swimming championship in Chile at age 13. As an adult she was an accomplished tennis player and played golf into her late 70s.

A revolution in Chile forced the family to return to the United States, where they settled in Los Angeles. Ms. Falkenburg's father found work as an engineer with the city's water district. Jinx graduated from Hollywood High School in 1935.

Her film career began at age 16 when she was discovered by a talent scout for Warner Bros. Fluent in Spanish, she was first cast in Spanish-language films at Warner, then made appearances in such English-language fare as The Lone Ranger Rides Again and Cover Girl.

While at MGM, she met Paul Hesse, a fashion photographer for the popular publication American Magazine. A highly lucrative modeling career developed.

During World War II, she met McCrary, who was serving in the Army Air Forces, when he came to interview her for a story he was writing for a military publication. They married in 1945 and remained married throughout their lives, although they separated in the 1980s.

As newlyweds, they talked New York City station WEAF into letting them host a morning program. Hi Jinx became one of the top-rated programs on radio.

By 1947, Tex and Jinx, as they were popularly known in homes across the country, had moved to television with At Home, broadcast on NBC on Sunday nights. The program integrated the use of film and live interviews in what was early talk television.

Their audience and celebrity grew, and at one point in the early 1950s they were hosts of two radio programs and a daily television show and wrote a column for the New York Herald Tribune.